Customer Reviews

Apple iPod classic 80 GB Black (6th Generation) OLD MODEL

5 star:		(547)
4 star:		(193)
3 star:		(75)
2 star:		(65)
1 star:		(113)

 

 

**Before you read some of the negative reviews, please consider this was BEFORE the new firmware update 1.0.3 came out so unfortunately they had unresponsive clickwheels, itunes messing up etc. Also some people simply did NOT upgrade their firmware for whatever reason but A LOT of those problems have been fixed with the new firmware so UPGRADE YOUR FIRMWARE AS SOON AS YOU GET YOUR IPOD! It will make a BIG difference!**

Ok, on to the review..I just got my 80 gb ipod classic recently with a 3 year extended service plan, immediately got itunes version 7.5 and upgraded the firmware immediately to 1.0.3 which seems to have taken care of A LOT of bugs people have been reporting. It must have because I am not getting ANY of the problems other have reported such as laggy clickwheel, itunes freezing etc. The clickwheel is VERY responsive, only a light touch is needed and scrolling through cover art was very quick! No problems whatsoever with the clickwheel. I also have had no problems copying files to itunes and transferring them to my ipod. The ipod itself is a thing of beauty, love the non scratchable surface but the back of the ipod is where you can see all the fingerprints etc so get a good cover for it. The slimness of it is very sleek and heck this ipod just looks cool. I got the ipod up and running in no time after I transferred my music over. Love the search feature as well. There is a lot of features, settings and extra's. Heck I even like the clock.

PLEASE NOTE:TURN OFF & DON'T use the EQ (equalizer setting)if you want normal distortion free sound. I was using the EQ and wondered why a lot of my songs had distortion. I thought it was due to the bad sound everyone was talking about until I turned OFF the EQ. Upon turning the EQ off, the distortion vanished completely, the sound was just fine, pretty good in fact. It's a shame that you have to turn off the EQ settings to get good sound. Hopefully Apple will fix this with a firmware update.

I almost got one of the itouch ipods but the very limited space is what kept me from doing so. 80 gb is plenty of space for my music, a bit of videos etc. It might not have wifi or a touch screen but it's got tons of space for my music and that's what counts! I love my ipod classic, can't find much to be picky about except for the sound when EQ is enabled. It does exactly what it's supposed to, is easy to navigate, videos look crisp/great on it and most of all it holds a crapload of music. Just remember to upgrade your firmware to the newest version, disable EQ and invest in a good pair of headphones. One of the best things about the ipod classic is that because it has so much space, I don't have to worry about how many mp3's I put on it. I've never downloaded so many mp3's in my life! I literally put my entire collection of mp3's on it and still have tons of space left. Overall, I rate the ipod classic 80 gb (black)...absolutely superb.

Ok guys, I just picked up my silver iPod classic 160gb from the Apple store on Regent Street in London so I can give an actual review on it.

I've had an 80GB video iPod for a year and it's already full, so I was really hoping Apple would make an iPod big enough for me. Presently I've got 110GB (and counting) of music, so this iPod is for people like me who have a large music collection, and who like to be able to take it anyplace.

The 160GB iPod is the same size as the 80gb, but costs less than the 80GB did when it first came out.

With a brushed aluminium front finish (similar to the 2 and 3G Nanos), it should be less prone to scratching, though the back is the same smudge magnet, and I don't know how resilient the screen is. The front is curvier than that of the last 2 video iPods, with the screen slightly depressed from the rest of the casing.

Additional features are extra long battery life (40 hours for music, 7 hours for video; I've tested this and playing music non stop without much fast forwarding, etc, it's about right), and cover flow (a fun way of scrolling through for music using album cover art, though it is a bit sluggish).

The new split-screen interface lists functions to the left half of the screen, and symbols (or previews of content such as cover art, videos or photos shown as a slide show) to the right as you scroll through the functions. Neat!!

During music playback, after being idle for about 80 seconds, the screen goes gray and displays a clock, and battery power. Viewing tracks in an album also gives you, at a glance, the track times. Same for video. A nice touch. To my hearing, the sound quality (without equalizers, mind you) is improved; more bass and a bit more treble. The iPod turns off in about 2 seconds, much faster than previous models.

It's still got the other regular features; album track lyrics (new, nicer text font, and it also shows the album art), can play video and games, store photos, contacts, calendar, notes, stopwatch, and screen lock (which allows you to lock the screen with a password), and it can be used as an external hard drive. It shows up in windows explorer as an external drive. The search feature allowing one to type in album/song/artist titles (introduced in the last video iPod) is still there, but relocated to the "music" menu. I didn't spot it at first. In fact, the menu has been reshuffled to make it better, and (under settings) one can now view number of songs, videos, photos, etc graphically just like in iTunes.

If you need loads of space for your music collection, you can't go wrong getting this. Judging from the crowds in the store, Apple's got another hit here. Now if only the iPod touch had this much memory...

I don't know how many people actually have this and wrote the review but at least I have it. Here are my takes on it:

Good things about this device:

1. its new interface looks much better than the old generation ones. fonts are sharper, coverflow search is hip, and there are some subtle differences people will appreciate. For example, when you play iPod after certain seconds the screen goes black and it will serve as a watch. it tells you what time it is. it may not look like much, but you will appreciate it.

2. audio quality has improved and you will definitely notice the difference if you have listened to a lot of music. far less hiss on the background and the sound is just warmer.

3. enclosure is absolutely gorgeous. there is also some subtle difference that makes this iPod look far much better than the last gen iPods. plus it's a lot thinner than last gen's iPod as well.

now the bad things about it.

1. touch wheel response is almost unbearable. since Apple decided to manufacture touchwheels on their own it has been having very inconsistent responses. last gen iPod was too jumpy when you scroll so you would have difficulty being accurate. This iPod, on the other hand, does not respond well when you scroll. it will take you far more pressure and far more spinning to get to where you want to be.

2. there are some bugs that must be fixed too. it sorta happens randomly but sometimes you can't control the volume, and sometimes you can't scroll down within albums.

overall, this iPod is excellent. the top notch sound quality overcame some of the problems it had. recommended.

You can read on for a detailed review. In summary, if my music collection wasn't larger than the iPod this was replacing, I would put the iPod classic on the shelf (or maybe ebay it) and run the old one.

This iPod is the first apple iPod product I have felt was just an afterthought. I have owned the 1G shuffle, the 2G 4GB Nano, and a 4G 20GB iPod color (wife also has a 5G 30GB iPod Video). I absolutely loved all of them. All felt like polished products.

The iPod Classic feels like an afterthought that they came up with when they decided to make the iPod touch not a real iPod, but halfway between a nano & an iPod.

The iPod Classic is very underpowered, or the firmware is poorly written. Either way, you will find navigating through the menus very tedious and will start becoming annoyed. The first thing you will notice is that there is something wrong with the click wheel. It doesn't pick up your finger movements the way the other generations of iPod did.

Apple has never been very friendly to audiobook listeners, but the current software makes it really bad. You can no longer sort your audio books by genre (or author, or even book title). All audiobook files are only accessible in a single alphabetized list. Yes, that's files, not books. So to get to 'State of Fear' part 6 of 8, you need to scroll down through every file of every book you have that has a title that starts earlier in the alphabet than "S". For me, that's 187 files. What's worse, is the list isn't a normal list of files (as was in the last generation of iPod), but is double height for each file and displays a tiny picture of the book's cover next to the file. What's still worse is that most of the time these just show question marks and slow the scrolling process even more.

The podcast menu uses the same double height lists, as do virtually all lists. Currently you can't turn this off, and you get to wade through your songs in this manner.

The cover flow feature is completely unusable as it is so slow and the album art isn't populated quick enough to actually be of use.

The general navigation utilizes a 1/2 screen for the menu and 1/2 screen for artwork, cut vertically. Its only use is to look good in apple commercials. After the "wow, that's neat" wears off, you search around for how to turn it off, but sadly, you can't. All it does is make what you are trying to read cut off, and also slows down the iPod. You will notice between a 1 & 2 second lag time from selecting an item before the sub-menu shows up.

I would say you should buy a fifth generation if you can find one, or hold out for the next generation of the touch (when it has enough space to hold your music).

The only good thing about this iPod is that all the problems appear to be software related... however my fear is that apple won't be working too hard to fix them as the "touch" is their baby right now. The click wheel problems might also be software related, as it seems like some of the non-response you get is the software locking up, rather than the click wheel itself not detecting your finger. I would recommend not purchasing this iPod until a SIGNIFICANT software update is released.

I will update this review for new updates to the software if there is any noticeable difference. Currently I have version 1.0.1

*Update: I have found that if you disable "view album artwork" on the settings in iTunes, this dramatically speeds up the iPod. It is a shame you need to do this, but it even makes the click wheel more responsive. You will have no artwork, at all, on the iPod, but the music and menus will function quickly.

*Apple released software version 1.0.2. I have not noticed any change in performance running the iPod without artwork. I enabled artwork to test if the patch did anything there, and I must say that the speed of the menus has improved and the coverflow is a lot more smooth (though still not very useful). However, it is still slower than the old iPods and the flaws mentioned above remain.

*Apple released software version 1.0.3. Hopefully it will address some of the above mentioned concerns.

***WARNING - I have installed software update 1.1. It has some serious issues and I would not advise installing this update. For some, it is bricking the iPod. Not for me, but there are some really weird/bad things it does and I haven't noticed anything good that it does. The most noticeable negative change is that the iPod does not turn off correctly at the end of a playlist. I like to listen to my iPod as I fall asleep (The Classic Tales podcast is excellent, look into it), so I do an "on the go" playlist with one episode, so that after I fall asleep the episode will end and the iPod will shut off. Not so with the new update. At the end of the episode the iPod just plays what I can only describe as dead air. So, the iPod will just play this (I guess until the iPod runs out of batteries, but I usually just find it playing dead air in the morning and turn it off manually by holding the play button).

My fears about the software updates not being priority for Apple look like they are coming true. I have a sneaking feeling that they will update the iPod Touch to a full sized iPod (30GB-60GB) before the Classic is fixed. Again, buy a 5th gen if you can find one and avoid this product.

Apple has intentionally disabled the Video Out button on the Classic models. Spend more, get less features. I am shocked to hear that Apple will treat so poorly those who shell out $349 for a 160 GB Classic. I contacted the Geek Squad none of the salespeople or support team had a clue that Apple had disabled the video out feature. They pushed every available button before contacting Apple to find out that Apple has disabled a basic feature available on all prior video Ipods. I had stopped at Circuit City first and had the same experience there.

I would not have bought this so quickly had I known that Apple disabled the video out capability. The video settings menu is still there, but all the clicking in the world will not change OFF to Ask or On. Apple will soon be selling a $49 accessory to allow some limited output of video. I already own the Icuiti IWear. Memorex and Virtual Reality Ipod video accessories, all now rendered useless by this greedy move on Apple's part. We all expect value-added from Apple, not elimination of a basic feature. Shame on you, Apple and Steve Jobs.

Ok. I have not read any other comments on this product on the Amazon webpage because I want it be about my experience and not influenced by anybody else's experience. I'll go back and read the other reviews after I post this and see where I fit in.

I purchased my 160GB iPod Classic 2 weeks ago because I was getting very limited on my previous 60G iPod (my 4th iPod) and I thought the extra 100 Gigs of space would last me for the next years with no problems. That aspect of the product has proved to be true.

That's when the problems began.

First, after uploading my entire 60 Gigs of songs and videos (6 hours to do that) the menus were so sluggish they were unusable.

The coverflow view provided the album cover for every artist on every album as a different album cover so it literally took 5 minutes to scroll from the first album to the last which made this "selling point" totally unusable. If the coverflow view just provided a view of each album cover by the name of the album, like I do when I view CD's on my bookshelf I would be happy, but what they have done makes no sense at all. After installing the 1.0.2 firmware update things improved slightly because they removed artists from compilation albums from the sort order and moved them to the end of the list, but seriously, nobody at Apple seems to have even looked at how someone picks up a CD from a bookshelf... by the single CD case which is a single title, not arranged by who sang each track on each CD!


OK, we'll get around that coverflow problem by just ignoring it and not using it. Check.

So, I put the thing in the dock on my PC. Hours later after the first synch all is good. But then, each successive time when you put it in the dock you get into a repeating connected, synching, connected, synching, connected, syching mode, and you cannot stop it. iTunes says synching once, but then if you try to eject the thing you can't. iTunes locks up for minutes at a time.

What do I do next? I go to the Apple Support discussions. I realize that there are many, many comments about this. Hmm! So I post some questions and I make a point of saying I have bought 4 other iPods and none of them do this. They all get deleted from the discussion groups.

Then I start monitoring the discussion groups by downloading the entire website several times a day and I realize that Apple is literally deleting many, many posts about these same problems.

The message you get from them is that you are violating their guidelines which I guess means that if you complain that your product flat out doesn't work you aren't allowed on the "support group".

Then if you start to examine the discussion groups and realize that Apple has intentionally disabled many of the video functions of the previous iPod models which breaks EVERY non-Apple video device out there you have to start wondering if Apple has not become the Anti-Apple!

What ever happened to "Think Different"?

Seriously, this is the most flawed product Apple has ever produced and as a fifth time Apple iPod buyer I have to say it's the last iPod I will ever own. Apple seems to be much worse than any other company now that they have a monopoly on MP3 players.

My vote is to buy anything BUT Apple from no on because they just screwed me, and thousands of other people, over on this iPod Classic.

"Apple why did you do this to me?" might sound like a harsh name for a review, so I should start by saying this iPod is an amazing device that may satisfy some customers. Building on tradition this iPod features the largest capacity yet: 160GB! When I heard this unit was out I immediately wanted it. After all who wouldn't want the king of all iPods? 160 GB is enough to hold many entire albums even without using compression--and have them playback gap free! So, here's why the unit had to be returned to the store, and why I have no interest in a 6G iPod.

Apple managed to do what appears to be a typical move for successful manufacturers. They have discontinued the use of a key piece of technology used in previous iPods: the Wolfson DAC. A "DAC", or digital to analog converter, is the chip that is responsible for turning numbers into sound (which is essentially what an iPod does). On the 6G iPod Apple has chosen a new DAC made by Cirrus Logic. This new chip apparently fails the taste test to an important community: people who care about the quality of their audio listening products. These are the same folks who throw away the headphones that come with the iPod and buy headphones that actually sound good.

Unfortunately this has me halting any iPod "classic" recommendations and purchases. I'm happy with my 5.5G iPod which uses the faithful Wolfson DAC and sounds like what a "classic" iPod should sound like. There are even folks who swear by the fidelity of even earlier iPods. Apple, please get it together.

Length:: 1:10 Mins

This is my third iPod. My first iPod was a 4G 40GB, my second was a 5G 60GB.

When I upgraded from the 4G to 5G it was a big improvement. I absolutely loved the new features such as color, photos, video, album art, etc...

Unfortunately my upgrade to the 80GB iPod `Classic' has been nothing but a big disappointment. When I heard Apple was about to release a new line of iPods I sold my 5G and was eagerly awaiting Jobs' keynote. First I must admit I was very disappointed they didn't release a high capacity `Touch'... I mean really disappointed... Although I strongly desire all the amazing features of the `Touch' such as WiFi and the fullscreen touch screen, my first requirement would be enough capacity to hold my entire 63 GB music library. I settled for the 80GB `Classic' since I was iPodless.

My first reaction with the iPod `Classic' was that it looked like a much sexier 5G iPod. This 80GB unit was noticeably thinner. The brushed aluminum front looked really great too. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there:

* The `Classic' does not come with the little sleeve case that 5G's came with.

* The screen is slightly lower than the brushed metal front and I am concerned it will begin to collect dust around the edges.

* The click wheel is HORRIBLE (what the hell happened) it completely lacks response and sensitivity. My 5G 60GB was so easy to navigate and after over a week of using my new `Classic' I find it the biggest pain to navigate. For this reason alone I wish I had my old 60GB 5G back.

* Coverflow... I was really looking forward to this feature. I make a lot of effort to maintain my music library and I'd say 95%+ of my music has cover art. Unfortunately the coverflow is so slow and laggy that it renders the feature completely gimmicky and not functional. When I flow through albums all I see are "question mark albums" and it takes a few seconds for the actual album covers to replace the "question mark albums".

* Another big disappointment is that you are no longer able to view album covers full screen as you are playing a song. (You used to be able to do this by clicking the middle button a few times when playing a song)...

* Also overall I find the GUI pretty slow when browsing my library... Sometimes it takes a few seconds to view the next layer of navigation when you push the button.

* I think Apple added some cool visual aspects to the GUI like animation in between menus etc.... Unfortunately these are sometimes choppy making me wish I just had the simple less-fancy old menus back.

* My iPod has frozen a few times. Sometimes I can scroll through the main menu but when I actually click on something (such as Music, Podcasts, or Extras) nothing actually happens...

So yes I am terribly disappointed with the iPod `Classic'. Keep in mind that this level of disappointment is relative to the high level of quality I expect from Apple on their iPod line. Although I am really disappointed this is probably still the best high capacity music player on the market. (Definitely better than the Zune)... It just isn't much better than (and is actually worse) than the 5G Video iPod. So my advice: if you currently have a 5G or 5.5G and are considering upgrading, don't, wait for Apple to release something better.

UPDATE: (9/18/2007)
I previously mentioned that the Classic doesn't come with the white sleeve/case that 5G's came with. Now I know why. When the 5G iPods are in the sleeve the click wheel is still functional.. if you press your finger against it you can pause, skip the track, adjust the volume, etc... (granted you can't see the screen).. Today I tried this with the Classic (in the old 5G sleeve) I can no longer adjust the volume on the iPod when the sleeve is on. I wonder if this is related to the overall click-wheel problem.

UPDATE: (9/19/2007)
Games purchased from the iTunes store for older iPods ARE NOT compatible with the Classic. This means the $20 I spent on four games for my previous iPod is completely wasted. Apple has said to customers that they must 're-purchase' the games in the new compatible format.

UPDATE: (9/20/2007)
I've added a video demonstration to show how slow and sluggish the cover flow feature is. The demo is using the new firmware update which supposedly addressed the cover flow issue.

UPDATE: (9/25/2007)
Two more issues are really annoying me. If anyone knows a solution/fix for either of them please post it in this review's comment section.

1) If you are playing a song and you don't touch any buttons for a while (after the backlight has already turned off) the clock "screensaver" comes on and you cannot see what is currently being played. This is particularly annoying when I am shuffling through all my songs and I have to touch the clickwheel just to disengage the "screen saver" to see what song is being played.

2) When I charge the iPod via USB (using Vista) the backlight on the iPod is ALWAYS on and there is no way to turn it off. So when I charge the unit overnight the backlight is still on when I wake up in the morning.

Update: (10/1/2007)
see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK-rDeD1Lfk

Update: (11/6/2007)
So my iPod totally died... Or rather the screen died. It was covered under warranty and Apple ultimately sent me a brand new iPod Classic. Apple Support handled the issue very fast and efficiently. The scroll wheel on my 'new' Classic is PERFECT!!! It's just as good as the old iPods, I was truly surprised... Also it generally seems to be running much better. Has Apple modified the hardware since the initial release? Or is this all a matter of a software fix? Either way I am much happier with the Classic. (On another note I recently switched to the iPhone and it is the best thing ever!!! 6 out of 5 stars)

I picked one of these up about a week ago. Battery Life is DOUBLE what my 5G 60 GB unit has. Unfortunately in a side by side comparison sound quality has degraded significantly compared to my wonderful 2 year old fifth generation unit. I did some research and found out Apple has completely redesigned the Logic Board and is no longer using the old Wolfson Microelectronics chip. The new iPod has a dynamically compressed, tinny, metallic sound that can even be heard thru the cheap earphones provided. There is almost ZERO 3D sense of depth and imaging. The sound is so horrible compared to 5G that you can tell the difference thru every headphone tested except for Bose which has almost zero high frequency response. If someone is new to iPod and never owned a fifth generation audiophile quality unit they will probably not have a problem with the sound though.

When I first got the unit it had firmware 1.00 installed and I experienced extremely sluggish menu response. I updated to 1.01 and response is now much quicker though still not as fast as my 2 year old iPod.

Update: The latest firmware 1.03 solves the sluggish menu response problem pretty well. Too bad nothing has been done about the sound quality.

Be careful. I returned three of the silver 160 GB iPod classics to the Apple store for the same apparent defect. All three of the iPods I took home seized up when I began to put large amounts of music on it. The problem happened when I hit about 10 GB of music. The iPod would go to the boot up screen and freeze. It would then make this loud clicking noise while the screen light turned on and off. It continued doing this until the battery ran out of power. When I took the last one back and demanded a refund the Apple store clerk suggested that it was a faulty USB port on my lousy Windows based PC. The problem is that one of my three iPods seized up on my work laptop and the others did it on my home PC. The final clincher was when the third one seized up and I read on the Apple website similar problems from other users. I believe Apple turned out this product too soon and either there are a high percentage that are very defective or there is an inherant design flaw in the system. I love my 60 GB iPod but it is nearly full and it has never had a problem. I will probably wait for 6 to 8 months and give Apple the chance to fix the problem before trying again. I recommend if you have problems demanding a refund from Apple and returning their poorly designed product to force them to address the issues.